It’s getting a little bit too crowded in MSP Town, isn’t it? If I remember correctly from when I first launched TruMethods, there were about 10,000-15,000 MSPs in all of North America. Now, from what I’ve been told, there are 35,000-40,000 MSPs across the entire continent. It’s time to adjust strategy, and this isn’t only because of increasing competition. There’s something a lot bigger going on — a new adventure is awaiting us.
Before becoming an MSP, you owned a break/fix business, right? Something broke, and your customer called you to repair it. For you, though, the model wasn’t sustainable. There wasn’t a clear way for you to calculate your monthly revenue. This made it a lot harder for you to operate your business — so what did you do? Put simply, you evolved.
We then began pitching the idea of managing technology instead of just fixing it. The best part about this new model (at least for us at the time)? The birth of one of our favorite abbreviations in the channel: MRR (something we cherish to this day, am I right?). This is when we also started throwing around words such as “proactive” and “trusted advisor” to prospects. The early days in MSP Town were magical, weren’t they?
But then, MSP Town became overpopulated, and commoditization hit core MSP services (such as support, patch, spy, spam, backup and security). The average customer couldn’t tell the differences between MSPs (for example, we all used the same tools and technology). We were all labeled as “trusted advisors,” and many of our customers understood the value of us being proactive by managing technology instead of fixing it.
Currently, many of us are stuck in MSP Town, looking for a ticket out. The good news is this: The next inflection point is now. You read it right — the next inflection point is now.
The needs of SMBs have changed over the past few years, and we as a community need to adapt to this mindset shift. SMBs are now looking for strategic relationships with us. These businesses now understand the power behind making better decisions around technology. This is the ideal time for us to swoop in and provide them with the answers.
Our answer to their problems is the technology success provider (TSP). That’s a term we’ll keep between us (the customer doesn’t need to know it even exists if you don’t want to tell them about it). What customers should understand, though, is we’re in the business of assisting them with producing positive business outcomes. (It’s what we as TSPs do best.) The TSP understands how technology can impact business success.
Technology Success World is where we all should strive to be. It’s where our customers are waiting for us. This trip is just another leg to our journey. Maybe you’re already on your way. If so, don’t forget to send the TruMethods team a postcard once you’re there.
